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A judge in the western U.S. state of Colorado has ordered movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes to remain in jail until his next court appearance when he likely will be formally charged.

Prosecutors said Monday they are considering pursuing the death penalty for Holmes, who allegedly killed 12 people and wounded 58 others at a midnight screening Friday of the new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.

Holmes, with his hair dyed bright orange, said nothing and looked dazed and unemotional during his first court appearance on Monday. The judge informed him that he could face first degree murder charges.

April 20, 1999: Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado - Two students armed with guns, knives and bombs kill 12 students, one teacher and themselves.

April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia - A student kills 33 people in a shooting rampage on the campus before committing suicide.

Nov. 5, 2009: Fort Hood, Texas - A U.S. Army psychiatrist kills 13 people in a shooting spree. The assailant is currently being tried in a military court.

July 20, 2012: Aurora, Colorado - A gunman kills 12 people at a theater during the premier of the latest Batman movie before being arrested by police.

Lisa Damiani, a lawyer representing the Holmes family, said the family's hearts go out to the victims. She gave no details about the family, but said they are doing as well as can be expected. Damiani stressed that the case is significant and that it must be tried in court, not in the media.

Authorities are investigating James Holmes and what might have turned a former Ph.D. student in neuroscience into a suspected mass murderer.

Police say Holmes is refusing to talk.

Holmes allegedly tossed a tear gas bomb into the theater before shooting at the audience with several weapons. Police arrested him without a struggle in the parking lot.

The shooting has renewed gun control debates in the United States, particularly about the lack of regulation on purchasing ammunition over the Internet. Authorities say Holmes bought thousands of bullets from websites in recent months. Proponents of such sales say it is legitimate for sportsmen to buy large amounts of ammunition online.

Afghan officials and human rights organizations assert that Pakistani authorities are using deadly attack at school in Peshawar as pretext to push out Afghan refugees More

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Comments

by: Yoshi from: Sapporo

July 24, 2012 2:56 AM

Probably he is psychologically sick. It' problem that such sick people be able to buy ammunitions ovet the internet without difficulties as said in this article. But these gun control debates would not be taken up as the issue of presidential election campain because the one who claims louder the necessity of gun control would loos.

by: gene m from: usa

July 24, 2012 1:27 AM

Let the courts do their job. If found guilty he should be put in jail for life without possibility of parole. Or death penalty, whatever the people find appropriate in such a heinous case.

by: Lewis from: China

July 23, 2012 11:22 PM

I am very curious about what on earth motivated him to conduct such an horrible shooting spree. And good luck to the his defender! It takes a lot to defend him, I think.

by: riano baggy from: indonesia

July 23, 2012 10:07 PM

let's the court work by the law,, i think the court must the remind the to appeal the amendment the constitution about the rights to bear private arms or weapons.

In Response

by: William from: California

July 23, 2012 11:29 PM

I believe there Should be restriction on buying ammunition because we never know where and when they used these I mean there are two ways one used to protect us from anyone or for you to hurt someone so we must be very careful in having those things.... This is only my opinion correct me if I am wrong....

by: Godwin from: Nigeria

July 23, 2012 2:35 PM

America awake! There's too much of liberties, freedoms even to kill and kill the unborn, defenseless, helpless, innocent and sinless humans in the name of freedom of expression and right to make choice; right of choice that gives the unborn innocents no right to choose. James Holmes may or may not be mad, but the whole situation out there in the US is maddening, so that if he has killed for fun, it would have been a way to express his American(ness). Humans have not been created without restrictions, and life that is so free of responsible restriction cannot be of this world. James Holmes is a case study of this hypothesis. USA is the wider theater. I pray this madness doesn't spread further.

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that his country could face further consequences to what he called its “already strained economy” if Moscow does not fully comply with a cease-fire in Ukraine. The two met, on Monday, on the sidelines of a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, where Kerry outlined human rights violations in Russian-annexed Crimea and eastern Ukraine. VOA State Department correspondent Pam Dockins reports from Geneva.

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